Crime is down in NYC, but half this year’s murders were in the Bronx

As the NYPD touts historic low crime rates across New York City, newly released data shows a disturbing trend in the Bronx:  The city’s fourth largest borough by population accounts for half of the city’s murders so far this year.

Through Sunday, the Bronx had accounted for 16 of the city’s 32 homicides, 45% of its shooting victims and 44% of its shooting incidents.

Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, called that “as tragic as it is intolerable,” in a statement Friday.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch Monday announced that NYC set records for the fewest homicides and shooting victims in recorded history for January and February. Citywide, homicides and shooting victims are down this year, with 32 murders and 99 people shot through Sunday, compared to 55 murders and 112 people shot by the same time last year.

But in the Bronx, homicides are up by 14% from the same time frame last year, and shooting victims are up 15%. And since 2022, the Bronx has accounted for about 30 to 33% of the city’s yearly homicide totals, NYPD stats show.

“Sadly, the Bronx has been under-resourced for decades. I have pleaded with our officials for years to address poverty, employment, housing and healthcare concerns that are root causes of crime,” Clark said. “The areas experiencing a high level of violence are still the same areas that endured it in the 1980s.”

Freshman City Council member, Justin Sanchez, who reps the city’s 17th district, encompassing parts of the South Bronx, said the statistic was “very alarming.” The council member said the Bronx is in need of more community crime prevention programming to address the  root causes of crime.

“It’s clear that as a city we need to be doing everything possible to provide the Bronx with the resources we need to curb this startling trend back down,” said Sanchez, who was born and raised in the borough.

Bloodshed in the Bronx

The city’s first murder of 2026 was in the Bronx, just before 7 a.m. on Jan. 1 when immigrant Uber driver, Issa Mbolo Isac was fatally shot in the head in what cops believe was a road rage incident after he got into a fender bender with his killer.

Mbolo Isac, 55, lived in Throgs Neck in the Bronx and was finishing up a late night shift when he was killed inside his blue Toyota RAV4 in Morris Heights. He was married with four children who live in Burkina Faso in West Africa, relatives said.

“He had a very good heart, and he worked very hard to support his family,” the Uber driver’s brother Mounir Zoron, 35, said at the time. “He never had any problems with anybody. He was trying to run away from them and they shot him.”

The city’s first shooting in the subway system this year was also in the Bronx. It took place inside the 170th St. station at E. 170th St. and Grand Concourse in Mount Eden at about 2:56 p.m. on Feb. 10, when 41-year-old Adrian Dawodu was shot and killed on the Manhattan-bound D and B trains platform, cops said.

The victim’s ex-girlfriend, Courtney McEaddy, 40, told the News he leaves behind two brothers and a sister.

“He dealt with mental health issues, but I loved him,” she said. “He was living in a shelter but he was trying to get his life together.”

A day after Dawodu was killed, 16-year-old Christopher Redding, was fatally shot in the back outside the Bronx Alehouse on W. 238th St. near Putnam Ave. in Kingsbridge shortly after 5 p.m.. Two other victims, a 15-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl, were both struck in their right legs.

Redding attended Kennedy High School where he was a star running back on the varsity football team, his grieving father said.

A 17-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with the triple shooting and charged with murder, attempted murder, manslaughter and criminal weapon possession. Cops said the slaying was gang motivated, despite Redding having no criminal record.

“My boy was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” the teen’s father, Bryan Corley said. “It’s a real tragedy. Everybody’s world has been ripped apart.”

Another high schooler was shot and killed in the Bronx walking home from school on Wednesday. Lamar Simmons, 19, was shot in the chest at E. 183rd St. and Hughes Ave. in Belmont about 2:05 p.m.. He was less than half a mile from home when he was slain in broad daylight.

“He was a good kid. He was doing what he had to do. He was trying to finish school,” said the victim’s sister, 30-year-old Letesha Simmons previously said. “He never caused anyone any trouble. He was barely outside. I’m just at a loss for words right now.”

No arrests have been made.

Bloodshed in the borough continued Friday morning when 27-year-old Jayvontae Simmons was fatally shot in the back of the head at about 6:35 a.m. inside the lobby of an apartment building on E. 165th St. near Tinton Ave. in the NYCHA Forest Houses complex. No arrests have been made.

Deeper problems

David Caba, who serves as Senior Vice President of anti-violence group, Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence (B.R.A.G.) said the borough’s homicide rate needs to bee seen in the context of broader social problems wracking the borough.

Bronx county ranks poorly in a number of key socioeconomic categories, inlcuding median income, high school graduation rates and overall life expectancy.

The borough’s median household income in 2023 was $48,610, roughly 39% less than the citywide median household income of $79,480, according to data compiled by NYU’s Furman Center. The borough’s poverty rate in 2023 was 27.9% compared to just 18.2% citywide.

Of the five boroughs, the Bronx ranked lowest for high school graduation rates at 77.3% compared to the citywide average of 82.6 in 2021, according to Equity NYC stats. The life expectancy for Bronx residents is 78.7 years old, the second lowest in the state.

“There are 62 counties in the state of New York, and the Bronx ranks number 62 in the majority of those negative statistics. So that is the answer at the end of the day,” said Caba, who was born and raised in the South Bronx. “In the long term picture, you [have to] improve those areas. Look at any thriving community, you’ll find that they have excellent school, excellent healthcare, excellent housing, excellent employment.”

He said gang culture, which often goes hand in hand with poverty, is a driver of violence in the borough.

Caba said he was raised in a poor South Bronx neighborhood by his single mother. By the time he was in the second grade, gangs were relentlessly trying to recruit him.

“While mom was working and we got out of school, we went to schools that don’t have a lot of resources, you start to fend for yourself. I ended up realizing, ‘Okay, I’m going to have to defend myself, keep myself safe,” he said. “I would watch the older individuals, the ones that I had to look up to… What they basically did was inflict pain and punishment on others and the rewards were power, profit and prestige. I was being mentored.”

Going down this road cost Caba, “a loss of freedom and violent injuries” but he said he turned things around before losing his life.

Caba’s organization, which is run by nonprofit, Good Shepherd Services, covers the 46th, 47th and 52nd NYPD precincts, and aims to remediate violence in these high-risk communities through canvassing, hospital responding and youth programming. Caba said organizations like his need more funding from the city to expand their efforts.

The NYPD responds

Tisch, the NYPD Commissioner, acknowledged the need to address the violence in the Bronx, announcing last month that 200 additional officers will be assigned to the Bronx after it is divided into separate North and South borough commands this spring. Patrol boroughs are commands that oversee local police precinct operations. Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn have two patrol boroughs, while the Bronx and Staten Island have only had one.

“For too long, the Bronx has experienced more crime per capita than any other borough while operating under a structure that has not kept pace with the demands placed on it,” Tisch said, during her State of the NYPD address.

The borough accounted for more than a third of all shooting incidents and shooting victims citywide in 2025, roughly three times the more populated boroughs of Queens and Manhattan, she noted.

The department will also be adding specialized units into the borough this spring including homicide squad detectives, evidence collection teams, narcotics teams, neighborhood safety teams and auto crime units, Tisch said.

The district attorney said she welcomes the NYPD’s plan, which will put the Bronx on “equal footing” with other boroughs’ crime-fighting force.

“I believe it will lead to more opportunities to prevent crimes, expedite response times and solve crimes,” Clark said.

But the city’s largest police union said this restructuring doesn’t make up for the fact that they’re nearly 6,000 cops short of their peak staffing, and continue to lose 250-300 officers a month to resignation and retirement.

“No matter how the patrol boroughs are organized, the bottom line is that we just don’t have enough police officers to meet the need in every neighborhood of every borough,” Police Benevolent Association President, Patrick Hendry said in a statement.

“Our city needs to work with us to improve cops’ pay, benefits and quality of life to help keep them on the job.”